Speaking at Microsoft Ignite

While sitting in LAX Airport with some time to kill I thought I’d reflect on the last week.

I’ve spent the last week at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Atlanta, and what a crazy but fantastic week it has been. Starting with only finding out 2 weeks before the start of the conference that I was invited to speak, frantically trying to sort accommodation and flights, and finally ending with speaking at the conference itself.

It was my first time speaking publicly, and I was super nervous about it, but luckily I had a band of seasoned speakers at the ready to walk me through it.

Waiting for the room to fill up @ Ignite 2016

My piece was short though and more painless than expected, I feel I’ve now got a new achievement under my belt and I should make an effort to do more of these to build up confidence.

The rest of the event was a blast, I got to go see a bunch of awesome people talk, but even better was the chance to sit down and talk with them outside of the conference. I got some real insights from talking with Microsoft Employees, Vendors and other IT professionals that I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to in little old New Zealand.

I highly recommend anyone who is given the opportunity to speak publically, take it. It’ll be scary but it’s so worth it.

See the talk here: https://youtu.be/-LK2ViRGbWs?t=41m59s